T-90 Teaser!

After being totally inspired yesterday AND as an aid to a stress free me I have had a go at the T-90 today. Finished off the hard edged scheme on the turret and started on the detail painting. I am going to replace the position lights later with some tiny lenses which makes life easier than trying to paint them. All the elements are now in their final colours and just need a coat of klear before weathering commences.







The F5 has however been consigned to the "lost interest" pile so may be finished in a year or two! Oh how fickle we modellers are!

A Hectic Schedule

Since the last update life as usual has been pretty frantic in the Smudge household. First major disaster, (according to my wife and daughter) the sky plus box blows up! major problems as they cannot get their usual fix of east-enders,American x factor and all the other drivel they watch! Easily fixed thanks to ebay. Next up I had two automotive problems. The wife's car needed a new windscreen and the daughters car a new battery again relatively easy to rectify but a major pain in the wallet none the less.

The good news is that I finally changed my car after looking for a suitable vehicle to transport Buck my German Shepard about as well as give me plenty of space for gear when, (ha ha!) I eventually go fishing. In the end I went for a rather spiffing Citroen C4 picasso and I must say so far it's bloody marvellous!





Today saw me actually doing something model related! With the lads from IPMS Salisbury we attended the IPMS North Somerset annual show. It was a great day with plenty of great models to look at as well as a good selection of traders to lighten the load from our wallets. I took some models and a few books down to sell on our stand and came away with more money than I started with. Even after buying some more models for the stash. I can tell you this is an extremely rare occurrence for me!





Unfortunately that will be as close as I get to actually modelling during the next week or so as I am off to Her Majesty's naval base Portsmouth for work and have to slum it in the senior rates mess for a week! just hope the beer is up to scratch!

You can view more pictures here,North Somerset Show

Back On The Web

Good news! I am now back on the internet thanks to BT and their super fast infinity broadband, a really painless and hassle free transition. I have noticed that downloads and uploads especially pictures are so much faster than before and it's far cheaper than my previous arrangement which in these difficult times is a bonus. I am now wondering why I didn't do it sooner!

On to the models and I have been working mainly on the T-90 paint scheme. I attempted a soft edged scheme first as seen on the turret but this did not look quite right to me so I used some silly putty and sprayed the hard edged scheme as seen on the hull. Much happier with this so the turret is next.





The F-5F has also had some work and is almost ready for final assembly. This is such an easy kit to build and I am really impressed with the detail on the model.

Can't get any Worse?

Again no updates on the modelling front but another disastrous chapter from my life! After the hideous computer problems I encountered I am now having MAJOR problems with my Internet provider so am now in the process of switching over to BT. Can I just say AOL I hope you rot in hell!! been with them for years but have been totally put off by their awful customer service and even worse call centres! Oh and the fact that they do not know what they are talking about. Hopefully it will be sorted by next week!



Let's hope there are no more nasty surprises around the corner to bite me in the ass!

Computer Disaster

Well I have had rather a painful couple of days due to my laptop giving up the ghost and totally buggering up loads of my files! to say I am annoyed is an understatement! I have lost all my recent pictures and articles/notes not to mention a vast amount of research I was collecting on the Land rover W.M.I.K, Luckily I can grab my recent build pictures from photobucket but the rest has disappeared. So I intend to get slightly drunk tonight to try and forget about the many hours of hard work up the spout! As the late Terry Thomas would say "hard cheese old boy"

The Missing Part Arrives !

Good news the missing part arrived yesterday so I finished off the commanders MG mount and added some extra details to the assembly. The observant amongst you will notice that I have reverted back to the kit barrel as well. Although the metal barrel was better in detail it was slightly wrong for a T-90 as was pointed out to me on Missing Lynx. I am looking forwards to the painting now and plan to try out some AK interactive products on the model.

Stress Free Building

Construction has started on the F-5F and it really is a stress free build, a lot of the parts just click into place. I have added some extra details to the seats just to make them look better. The main fuselage is a joy to build with only the slightest smear of Mr Surfacer here and there. Painting of the cockpit is in progress at the moment.

AFV Club F-5F VFC-111 "sundowners"

A trip to my local model shop today for some paints and plastic strip ended up with me snapping up this rather fetching model by AFV Club. I just could not resist the rather fetching colour scheme. A quick look in the box revealed a whole host of beautifully detailed parts and by the looks of it a very stress free build.



So as I said in my previous post onwards and upwards (quite literally!)

Wonderful WMIK!

Finally finished off the WMIK today after only 7 months toil! The base received some weeds carved from plastic rod and some green line grass clumps. The fence post was some old etch which I drilled out some holes then folded. The base was painted exactly the same as the vehicle then I picked out stones in various tones from grey for flint to almost white for chalk. The grass was sprayed with tamiya colours then the whole lot got a dry brush with oils then a dusting with the pigments used on the WMIK. So the setting is a rather dusty early summer day on Salisbury plain.






























So there you have it, what was at times a rather tedious project for me but enjoyable non the less. Onwards and upwards as they say!

WMIK Weathering

Right we are on the final straight! at bloody last, finally bit the bullet today and added dust effects to the model. I started with heavily thinned tamiya earth and buff then went over the model with MIG pigments P415 light european earth, I used this mostly dry apart from the foot wells, I used a drop of water in these. Lastly a bit of MIG oil and grease stain mix was used in the engine bay, fuel filler and differentials.

The base was also started today nothing fancy but I will be adding a couple of rusty fence posts and some barbed wire to the base. Very pleased with the outcome of the dust stage to me it looks like it's just driven off Salisbury plain which is what I was aiming for.











The T-90 build is now on hold until my replacement part arrives so hopefully I will not have to wait too long to start painting it!

T-90 Tracks and Turret Tweaks Part 2

The hull is now almost completed, very little needed adding to the hull front just some cables for the lights and a pry bar to the hull top. The swinging arms suffer from a very small locating pin so I used some epoxy to fix these firmly to the hull. I elected to drill and pin the tracks instead of using glue as this gives me greater scope later on when painting the tracks off the vehicle. It also allows some slight adjustments in track tension. The front idler can also be adjusted to take out any slack. The tracks look very nice with perhaps a slight lack of detail on the end connector bolts. I may add better bolts from punched plastic card later but only on the visible areas of the finished model.







I eventually elected to replace the kit barrel and antenna mount with some RB Models items. The barrel is No 35B102 which looks spot on according to my references, it certainly has much better detail than the kit item. Again I fixed this with some epoxy after making some adjustments to the mantlet. The antenna base also looks much better and this item is No35A14. Both additions although not entirely necessary are not that expensive and enhance the final look of the model.







Well I am nearly at the end of the build and so far it's been a blast. I really like this kit and even without the additions I have made a very nice model can be built.

T-90 Hull Tweaks

Yesterday and today has seen me working on the rear of the hull and the engine deck, I used some scrap mesh for the intakes as it's easier to work with than the kit supplied nylon mesh. Loads of insanely small bolt heads where added as well as some missing details. The tow cable wire is from an older build, it's nice and pliable and again better than the kit supplied string. I have left off the fuel drum supports for now as they are not that solid and am still debating whether to fit the drums as most pictures I have seen show the supports but no drums.









I Also added the snorkel housing and wind sensor assembly to the turret and added details to these parts. The antenna base may get replaced with a brass item and I think the main gun barrel will get replaced with a metal item as the detail on the barrel is rather soft.





In between all this frantic activity I have been varnishing the base for the WMIK and buying a new compressor hose as I somehow managed to break the connector on the compressor! so no weathering on the WMIK until it arrives.